News

OPC UA at Hannover Fair – CAS listed as early adopter of Publish/Subscribe

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The OPC Foundation announces the addition of the publish/subscribe messaging pattern to the OPC UA specifications. The first live demonstration featuring multiple vendors was shown at the world’s largest Industrial Automation Show at Hannover Fair.

The OPC Foundation addition of publish/subscribe communication functionality to OPC UA provides the necessary infrastructure to achieve seamless interoperability for Industrial IoT, IoT, and Industrie 4.0 applications and devices. OPC has been based on a client/server architecture, and is now enhancing the architecture with the inclusion of publish/subscribe to provide a solid infrastructure that allows information integration from embedded devices to the cloud.

A demonstration of the OPC UA publish/subscribe functionality was held at Hannover Fair the week of April 25 in the OPC Foundation Booth. This demonstration consisted of multiple vendors showing OPC UA enhanced with publish/subscribe, truly demonstrating how easy it is to have connectivity and information integration in IoT devices and applications.

CAS is contributing to this initiative and has been listed as an early adopter of this technology. As a part of this activity we are supporting an open source project at GitHub. To get more see the document OPC UA at Hannover Fair.

“OPC UA’s new publish/subscribe capability provides a uniform model for distributing data and events from OPC UA device to interested observers inside the production environment as well as in external IT and analytics cloud systems. The cloud integration path uses the ISO/IEC AMQP 1.0 protocol with JSON data encoding, which readily allows handling of the information in modern stream and batch analytics systems. Future devices that will implement the new OPC UA publish/subscribe capability will allow for direct and friction-free integration with modern cloud platforms, enabling using modern analytics capabilities for system optimization and predictive maintenance”, says Clemens Vasters, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Azure and OPC Technical Advisory Council Member.

CAS is working on the implementation and commercialization of the Object Oriented Internet and Internet of Things technologies based on the OPC Unified Architecture open standard to meet the Industry 4.0 paradigms. The description of this technology is covered in the article: Object Oriented Internet. This technology was just presented first time during the last Hannover Fair. We are contributing to the common initiatives of the OPC Foundation and Microsoft. There is a short showcase presenting this technology. This technology deployment is aimed at delivering longer plant life, extended maintenance intervals, reducing downtime and lowering whole-life operating costs; for example it has already been proven for remote control and maintenance improvements of power plants.

New version 3.20 of CAS OPC UA Address Space Model Designer is available

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The application supports the OPC UA Object Oriented Internet paradigm. Its detailed description is available on-line. To improve adaptability, the application uses open source components available in the mentioned project workspace.

New version 3.10 of CAS OPC UA Address Space Model Designer is available

Friday, April 24, 2015

New version 3.10 of CAS OPC UA Address Space Model Designer is available. The main changes and new functionalities are listed below:

Import support for XML documents compliant with the UANodeSet XML Schema.

Each OPC UA Server interchanges data with OPC UA Clients engaging the Address Space concept. Address Space instantiated by a server allows publication of the underlying process data in a standard way as a collection of nodes created according to the strictly observed rules. To instantiate the Address Space any reusable OPC UA Server needs a description of it. The OPC UA standard defines a formal definition of the syntax UANodeSet XML Schema. The semantics of an XML document compliant with this schema is explained in this manual: Address Space Interchange XML

White paper “OPC UA Information Model Deployment”

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

We would like to invite you to read a white paper entitled: “OPC UA Information Model Deployment” written by Mariusz Postol (CAS).

This whitepaper is dedicated to process architects and software developers to help them deploy the real-time process state and behavior description as a ready to use solution in a real production environment and use this description to integrate the process as a consistent part of a selected Industrial IT application domain. High-level general discussion refers to the Analyzer Device Integration (ADI) model and is illustrated using CAS Address Space Model Designer tool. It makes the paper a case study that should be useful also for the deployment of any OPC UA product.

An opportunity for research projects in Poland to be refunded

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Government of Poland and the European Union economically support entrepreneurs in developing their research and development activities (project budget could be refunded up to 85%). In the financial perspective 2014-2020 the means allocated for that purpose will amount to ca. €72.9bn. There are many programs planned with small and medium-sized enterprises with the priority focused among others on:

Research and development of modern technologies

R&D infrastructure

Capital for innovation

Investments in innovative undertakings

Diffusion of innovation

Polish economy on the international market

The programs very well suit the needs of further acceleration of adoption of the OPC Unified Architecture as innovative integration technology. On the grounds of my experience I have prepared a series of articles on the new scope of applications where OPC UA shall be recognized as a prerequisite. All of them have the common title pattern „OPC UA Makes it Possible”. (http://mpostol.wordpress.com/). This set of examples is an attempt to define the target scope for new R&D infrastructure or innovative undertakings. This concept is described in the article titled OPC Unified Architecture: Enabler of Future Solutions.

In the new budget more money will be allocated for creating innovative economy and establishing its firm bonds with scientific and research entities. As an Assistant Professor at Lodz University of Technology (Institute of Information Technology) – one of the largest universities of Poland - I can be a willing helper and actively support this process. Additionally, Polish industry seeks for new innovative solutions aimed at improving economy by optimizing process control. One of the examples is the project Smart Heat Distribution System for Warsaw. My team has provided the feasibility study for this solution. As far as I know the project will start soon and the concept will be implemented over a few next years. We are also currently working on implementation of the Smart Factory concept at Japan Tobacco International.

Concluding, undertaking common business activities together with Polish companies could be very beneficial as the result of:

Very strong support of research innovative projects by refunding their budgets up to 85%

A ready to be implemented vision of the research activities with the goal of working on new innovative application areas having global applicability and potential profitability

Real industry enquiries to apply the result of research outcomes mentioned above

Do not miss this opportunity. Let us benefit from the synergy effect together – you will be welcome to Poland. To get more and obtain a document containing answers to frequently asked questions send me your expressions of interest.

About Mariusz in the OPC Foundation:

Since 2004 Mariusz has been a member of the OPC Foundation. As publications author and member of working groups: Europe Technology Expert, Early Adopter, Analyzer Device Interface, Acceleration Adoption, Mariusz is involved in projects related to the development of the tools and the information model for Analytical Devices released as a companion specification. Mariusz is a Country Representative for OPC Europe.

CAS Shepherd system for the coordination of deliveries and shipments supports the work at JTI.

Monday, June 04, 2012

CAS has just finished the deployment of the Shepherd application for the coordination of deliveries and shipments in the customer production environment at Japan Tobacco International – a leading tobacco product manufacturer.
The application allows us to optimize logistic processes of any company because internal and external transport services are able to book in advance by selecting free and most convenient time slots from the schedule (like cinema tickets booking).
By using Internet technologies (the SharePoint platform), the process participants – both the employees (security and warehouse staff, sales, supply and logistic departments employees) and the external partners (suppliers, carriers, escort providers, offices, etc.) – are directly involved in joint business processes.
The Shepherd application can also work in a browser window without having to install any software, i.e. it provides access to data anywhere. The system in the cloud eliminates the financial and investment barriers to many small businesses.

New functionalities of CommServer

Monday, April 11, 2011

We launched new versions of our flagship CommServer software family products dedicated to manage communication between applications, which combine the smart data transfer and systems integration functionality.

Smart Grids - analysis of problems, proposing solutions on the example of District Heating Network

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Inspired by the Smart grid, more and more heating companies choose to start work on intelligent heating networks that are to improve the heating system operation.

Aspects of the district heating networks development are presented in the published documents: white paper and case study. They are prepared basing on the experience and exchange of opinions at the stage of preparation of the feasibility study of the Smart Heat Distribution Network (SHDS) for Warsaw central heating system. The case study concerns the proposal of innovative solutions in technology, communications, computing and automation, which can significantly affect an improvement in heating systems operation.

Control Engineering Poland 2010 Product of the Year Awards given.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

We are proud to announce, that CommServer UA, a product by CAS is the winner in the “Wireless communication” category. Our software has been praised by experienced experts in the field of industrial automation.

CommServer UA is one of the first OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) server throughout the world. It allows you to minimize implementation costs of highly distributed automation systems, due to the open architecture of the Process Observer.

An important second place in the “HMI, SCADA systems, visualization” category won our product - OPC UA Viewer. Our software allows for easy configuration of OPC UA communication using secure communications and different communication protocols. OPC UA Viewer can be integrated with other programs, such as GIS, ERP, BI, SCADA and HMI, becoming for them a new source of data.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Partnership Program

Monday, February 21, 2011

We offer hardware and software vendors an opportunity to integrate their products with CommServer software family.Thanks to the offered functionality without having to incur expenditure on research and development projects you can deliver a product with strong competitive edge on the OPC and OPC UA market.

Successful completion of a project on the Smart Heat Distribution Network for Warsaw heating system

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

We are proud to announce that we have just successfully accomplished the technical/economic feasibility study on Smart Heat Distribution Network (SHDS) for Warsaw central heating system.

The Warsaw central heating system consists of hot water circulating network, about 1700km long, including 16000 nodes and supplied from 4 thermo-power plants with total output power of 4,5GW. In the feasibility study of the Smart Heat Distribution Network (SHDS) for Warsaw central heating system we propose high-tech solutions covering technology, communication, IT and process control with the aim of significantly improving heat transportation efficiency, reducing losses (power dissipation, water leakage, etc.) and finally ensuring the high possible quality and reliability of heat supply to customers in accordance with their expectations. The proposed architecture bases on the open connectivity standards and, as a result, it provides a framework for the integration of highly distributed “islands of automation” with top level applications employing the artificial intelligence idea for optimal control of the heat transportation process. Provided documentation contains hundreds of pages with analyses, diagrams, tables and descriptions intended to propose a consistent vision of the enterprise development and seamless integration of the SHDS with the enterprise management IT systems.

Control Systems, HMI change Management, Security - white paper published by Control Engineering

Friday, November 19, 2010

Change management and security concerns have increased as human-machine interfaces have become more open and expose process data and metadata. Security precautions need to provide selective availability to control functions. Standards such as OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) can help off-the-shelf products be flexible and reusable, even in demanding applications.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Nurnberg, Germany, Nov. 23 – 25, 2010

Together with other OPC Foundation members, CAS will exhibit at the OPC Foundation booth and present products and solutions based on the OPC technology, especially focusing on the new emerging Unified Architecture standard. Of course, you will find also the CommServer products including breaking features of the Address Space Model Designer.

Over 1360 exhibitors present their most innovative products and services. SPS/IPC/DRIVES Fair is dedicated to manufacturing process control technology.

OPC UA Viewer - OPC Unified Architecture client

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

CommServer OPC UA Viewer is a free OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) client. It allows integrators, developers, testers and all other users to easily connect to any OPC UA server, read data from the server, browse model structure according to references and much more! OPC UA Viewer is an ideal solution for automatic testing of connection with the OPC UA server using different communication protocols and using many different data transition security modes.

FEATURES

Ability to connect to many servers at the same time.

Ability to connect to OPC UA server using either binary streams that use TCP channel or using Web Services and HTTP protocol.

Support for many different data transfer security types, e.g. using encrypted or non-encrypted communication, certificates.

Ability to automate testing of connecting to servers, that are working in the network.

Browsing of the server address space structure according to different reference types.

Filtering of particular reference types in the Browse view.

Creating of the subscription to monitor the changes of values (support for different types of monitoring is available).

OPC Book: OPC - From Data Access to Unified Architecture

Monday, July 26, 2010

"OPC - From Data Access to Unified Architecture” - this book provides a solid foundation of knowledge for suppliers and end users alike to truly understand OPC from the beginning all the way through the OPC Unified Architecture. One of the book co-authors is Mariusz Postół , CEO of CAS and representative of the OPC Foundation Europe in Poland.

Control Engineering Poland 2009 Product of the Year Award for OPC UA Address Space Model Designer.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The editorial board of Control Engineering Poland magazine granted the “2009 Product of the Year” awards. We are proud to announce, that OPC UA Address Space Model Designer, a product by CAS is the winner in the “User interfaces” category. OPC UA Address Space Model Designer software has been praised by experienced industrial automation experts for innovation, user-friendliness, ease of use and possibilities of practical application.

OPC Foundation Launches OPC Europe

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The OPC Foundation – an organization whose mission is to ensure interoperability in automation by creating and maintaining of the OPC and OPC Unified Architecture open communication standards, has set up an European subsidiary, the OPC Europe.

OPC Europe President is Stefan Hoppe from Beckhoff ,Vice President - Tino Hildebrand from Siemens.

“I am very pleased to have been selected to lead such a prestigious group of companies in the marketing effort for OPC UA technology throughout Europe.” said Stefan Hoppe.

Representative of the OPC Europe in Poland is Mariusz Postół - CEO of CAS.

"CAS entered the world of the OPC Unified Architecture new standard in 2008. My task as a representative of the OPC Europe in Poland is to ensure that Polish engineers do not miss the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the OPC Unified Architecture, as groundbreaking changes occur once every 20 years. I hope that CAS will not be the only Polish corporate member of the OPC Foundation soon." said Mariusz Postół

OPC and OPC Unified Architecture enable the transmission of process data, data about alarms and events, historical data to devices of different manufacturers.

For more information about OPC Europe, please visit the OPC Foundation website at www.opceurope.org

New service: Designing of the OPC Unified Architecture Information Models.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

We have added a new service to our offer, i.e. Designing of the OPC Unified Architecture Information Models. This service is dedicated to all companies (vendors or end users) that are going to design a model from scratch or adapt the existing one.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

We would like to invite you to read a white paper entitled: “Implementation of the OPC UA Information Model for Analyzers” written by Mariusz Postol (CAS), Voytek J. Janisz (ABB), Claude M Lafond (ABB) and Jim Luth (OPC Foundation) that has just been published by the OPC Foundation.

In this white paper selected aspects of the ADI model adaptation and implementation are discussed. The white paper is dedicated to supporting process architects and software developers in deployment of the ADI-aware solutions in a real production environment. Very general scope of the discussion makes the paper a case study that can be useful for the deployment of any kind of OPC UA product. The content of the article is a result of the experience gained by the authors during their work with the OPC Foundation ADI working group.

New version 3.00.02 of OPC Viewer is available.

Friday, October 30, 2009

The main changes and new functionalities are listed below:

Tested for Compliance and Interoperability at OPC Interoperability Workshop (2009) in Nuremberg, Germany

OPC Viewer is now more informative; diagnostic information is stored in the log file and displayed on the Debug tab. The Debug tab displays information about the connection status and errors or warning information if any

5th International Manufacturing Trade Fairs - PROTECH`09

Thursday, October 29, 2009

November 18 – 19, 2009, Wroclaw

SYSTECH’09 is held during the 5th International Manufacturing Trade Fairs PROTECH’09 - Poland’s premier manufacturing event. The seminar is addressed to those engaged in IT systems that support the management of manufacturing enterprises.
We invite you to a presentation ”The Integration of Process Automation and Business Using the New OPC Unified Architecture Standard” focused on the integration of diversed automation islands in order to present current process data as a uniform “big picture” of the manufacturing process to the other IT systems in the enterprise. During the presentation we will show new features and opportunities for the process automation and business integration using the CommServer™ products supporting the OPC UA technology.
Because of limited presentation time, please visit our websites www.commsvr.com for more details.

Meet us in Wroclaw, 10:00 a.m., November 18, 2009

CAS at OPC Interoperability Workshop in Nurnberg, Germany

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The main goal of CAS participation in the workshop was to test OPC compatibility for CAS software supporting OPC Unified Architecture technology and the newest version of software for OPC Classic.
CAS as the first company in Poland and one of the first in the world supports OPC UA technology with the use of the following OPC UA software:

OPC UA Wrapper

CommServer UA

As an active member of the OPC Foundation we are involved in projects related to the OPC Unified Architecture including the development of the OPC Foundation Software Development Kit and the Analytical Device Interface information model released as a companion specification.
More about OPC UA

The newest version of CAS software for OPC Classic which successfully passed the Interoperability Testing process:

Interoperability Testing is a process where OPC Classic/OPC UA vendors test their products with each other. That process requires that OPC vendors run a series of standard tests for each combination of OPC Client and OPC Server/ OPC UA Client and OPC UA Server products. OPC/OPC UA Server products are obligated to pass a test with the Compliance Test Tool in advance.
In addition, OPC/OPC UA Client products have to be tested against the OPC Analyzer Tool in a test supervised by the OPC Foundation.

New version 2.60.02 of OPC Viewer is available.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The main changes and new functionalities are listed below:

DataPorter service tool strip added to the menu. DataPorter has now the ability to run as Windows service. Nobody has to be logged in to run DataPorter. DataPorter as ordinary service can be configured to start automatically, run on a particular account, no interaction with a desktop is required

New version 1.11.10 of OPC UA Address Space Model Designer is available.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The main changes and new functionalities are listed below:

Code generator (compiler from SDK) settings and path can be configured

The editor of data bindings, which allow us to configure the server and the bindings between instance nodes in the model and the actual real-time process data sources, has been moved to a separate pane

New version 1.30.00 of DataPorter is availiable.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The main changes and new functionalities are listed below:

DataPorter has now the ability to run as Windows service. Nobody has to be logged in to run DataPorter. DataPorter as ordinary service can be configured to start automatically, run on a particular account, no interaction with a desktop is required

New DataPorter monitor is available. This new tool allows displaying the statistics from the DataPorter engine (from a local or remote PC):

The user interface in comparison to the previous DataPorter window is improved

New icons are used

New Toolstrip to control (start, stop restart) the local DataPorter service is added

New statistics information

Transaction statistics allows for an easier analysis and are more informative

Thursday, July 16, 2009

CAS, the vendor of products, services and trainings dedicated to the OPC Unified Architecture technology, has announced the availability of a new version of Address Space Model Designer (ASMD). CAS ASMD is a set of tools for designing and building UA address space models. UA address space concept is a foundation allowing the UA servers to integrate process and enterprise management systems.

New functionality is especially dedicated to UA SDK’s and server vendors because now the developers can provide plug-ins with a vendor-specific server configuration editor. The editor is used to modify general settings and, what should be stressed, define nodes data-bindings with the underlying real-time process. This unique feature makes it possible to edit the server configuration tightly coupled with the model and define a few diverse data sources for each instance node, so redundancy is available.

Finally, using the proposed solution, we can provide a foundation for:

Interoperability without programming, and

Configuration of the server and process data-bindings in context of the model without programming skills.

Interoperability without programming means that any end-user without any programming skills and knowledge must be able to:

install the server,

design the model that meets the end-user application requirements,

configure and maintain UA server configuration,

set model nodes to bind to the real-time process data.

In other words, our software enables you to offer a solution that can be used to deploy a UA server without the necessity of changing any code line . It refers to model designing and real-time process data-binding.

You can download and use our software together with an example plug-in for free at:

To obtain this functionality the only thing, that your (vendor specific) configuration utility must offer are some (actually 2) predefined very simple interfaces to be consumed by our tool. These interfaces are used to inject additional set of properties into the user interface (GUI) of the modeling tool, and finally can be used to synchronize work on two loosely coupled information sets: process modeling and process data source configurations and bind them together.

New version 1.11.00 of OPC UA Address Space Model Designer is published.

Monday, June 29, 2009

The main changes and new functionalities are listed below:

Possibility of creating the configuration for the OPC UA server is added. This feature is the first step to the "Interoperability without programming" concept. It is possible to create plug-ins for UA Address Space Model Designer, which allow us to configure the server and the bindings between instance nodes in the model and the actual real-time process data sources. Configuration of this functionality (i.e. choosing sources) is available in the "UA Server" menu. A sample plug-in is installed in "My documents\UAAddressSpaceModelDesigner\Sample ". Bindings can be configured inside the instance nodes configuration (objects, variables, properties) as a "Process Bindings" property. What is more, for each instance node many data sources can be configured, so redundancy is available. Currently, an OPC DA client is available as the data source, so any OPC server can be a source of data.

Synchronization with OPC Foundation SDK 1.00.238.1 Stable

Export of the model to the documentation format file (in the MAML language, based on XML) is added. Now it is possible to export the model to the MAML file and use it in the documentation creation process. To use the "Export" function, select the node, which represents the project, and then choose "To MAML" option from the "File -> Export" menu.

A visual editor of the state machines is available. Now it is possible to easily add new transitions, delete transitions or change causes of the transitions in the particular state machine using graphical editor. The editor can be started after selecting a node, which represents the state machine, and selecting "State Machine Editor" from the "Tools -> Custom Editor" menu.

OPC Viewer is integrated with the UA Address Space Model Designer. It can be started in the Tools menu and used as an OPC DA client configuration tool.

ACHEMA Exhibition in Frankfurt Germany, May 11-15, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Data exchange between applications using the OPC UA Analyzer Device Integration (ADI) information model was demonstrated during ACHEMA Exhibition. It was the first public demonstration of UA Server supporting ADI Specification. CAS had contributed by providing the OPC UA modeling tools and support for the model development.

New version 1.10.90 of UA Model Designer is published

Monday, June 08, 2009

The main changes and new functionalities are listed below:

Application main menu includes entries to the planned functionality and allows the user to send comments and requests to OPC UA AS Model Designer development team. Intentionally it is a survey that allows us to harmonize the development priorities with your needs.

Model build is done silently in background (none command window appears) - the whole output from build process is available in a new Output panel.

The spelling of the directory that contains a sample solution is fixed ("My Douments\UAAddessSpaceModelDesigner\Sample" is changed to "My Douments\UAAddressSpaceModelDesigner\Sample").

CAS CommServer channel on YouTube

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

We invite everybody who is interested in OPC and CommServer family products to visit CAS CommServer channel on YouTube.

New version 1.10.71 of UA Model Designer is published.

Friday, April 24, 2009

New version 1.10.71 of UA Model Designer is published. The main changes are listed below:

Node Copy/Cut/Paste functionality is added in node context menu. Now it is possible to copy (cut) node and then paste it into another appropriate node. Copied node is stored as XML text in system clipboard, so it can be pasted to any text editor (this XML is compatible with OPC Foundation UA SDK model definition).

Build functionality is added. Now the model can be built (C# classes are generated from the model) directly from the CAS UA Address Space Model Designer. Try Build option from the Tools menu. What is more , output directory and CSV filename can be configured in properties of each Project (model).

Message which appears when the user tries to load the model as solution is changed. Now it is more informative.

New version of UA Model Designer rel. 1.10.50

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

UA Model Designer rel. 1.10.50 changes:

Filtering is improved (filtered nodes are hidden instead of marking with another color; when defining the filter, node classes (according to OPC UA specification) can be selected to hide and unhide particular nodes)

Naming convention for namespace prefixes in the XML output document is changed

15th International Fair for Industrial Automation AUTOMATICON®2009

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Practice proves that the integration of enterprise management systems (MES, SAP, ERP, GIS, etc.) with production control and monitoring systems (PLC, SCADA, HMI) can yield additional profits thanks to optimization and the synergy effect. The integration is conditioned by the possibility of putting real-time data into the management systems and vice versa.

The presentation is focused on the CommServer software family that allows for communication between various systems at costs considerably lower than potential profits. Cost minimization is a result of the employment of international communication standards and solutions that do not require programming. The software has been tested for compliance with several dozen products of major manufacturers and has the OPC Foundation "Self Tested" certificate. It enables integration on one's own and, in consequence, the creation of an open system.The application of telemetry systems integration to present real production in GIS and ERP systems is shown as a case study.Another example of CommServer application is the integration of process control systems in order to make additional profits from the manufacturing process due to the synergy effect. This difficult challenge has been accomplished in heat engineering, where synchronized heat distribution gives additional profits to the thermal-power plants group during electric energy production.

New version of CommServer.

Friday, February 13, 2009

This is a bug-fixed and improvement release (it has no new features). The main changes are listed below:

Importing tools in NetworkConfig are improved and bug-fixed

Some stability issues are fixed in NetworkConfig (problem with changing DataType of a certain item when DataProvider is not set, problem with adding new tags for some DataProviders and other minor issues are fixed)

CommServer using the default demo configuration and Demo Simulator complained that too many writes failed (FIXED)

MBUS DataProvider is fixed (previously it hung up sometimes)

SBUS DataProvider informs now that it supports also real numbers

SBUS DataProvider is fixed (previously it hung up sometimes)

CommServer has improved settings, which allows using it with not fully compliant OPC clients (like Wizcon)

CommServer logging functionality is improved (some new events can be tracked).

New version of DataPorter

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

New version of DataPorter™ 1.21.01 software is available on the CommServer website and offers new functions:

Writing values from OPC to database is available in DataPorter demo version now. DataPorter can write data to any database. Built-in drivers allow for the connection to databases like Microsoft SQL, Oracle or any other using ODBC.

DataPorter installs preconfigured MsSQL database by default. It is very easy to start writing to that database; the only thing that must be done is adding the “DB save” block to transaction in the configuration (no programming, SQL scripting, or connection defining is necessary).

DataPorter allows writing to OPC from web services (previously, only reading from OPC via web services was available, now you can set the value in OPC using web services).

There is a new possibility of triggering the transactions. For any transaction a trigger item can be defined. A change of the value of this item executes the transaction. The user can define the change percentage that causes the execution

UA Model Designer

Monday, December 08, 2008

OPC Unified Architecture (UA) is the next generation of OPC; one of its biggest improvements is a powerful Address Space and Information Model.

To make the designing of the OPC UA Address Space Model easier, CAS introduces an UA Model Designer, that is a powerful tool, which allows creating, displaying and editing OPC UA models compatible with the OPC Unified Architecture address space concept. What is more, it provides a comprehensive intelligent ebook with smart positioning system providing a context-sensitive help. The tool is created for developers and engineers, for professionals and beginners.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Nurnberg, Germany, Nov. 25 – 27, 2008
Over 1200 exhibitors present their most innovative products and services. SPS/IPC/DRIVES Fair is dedicated to manufacturing process control technology. It covers all solutions and products along with process control devices and actuators, thus offering integrated automation solutions.
The key topics for SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2008 are:

Ethernet in Automation

Safety and Security in Automation

Motion Control

Together with other OPC Foundation members, CAS will exhibit at the OPC Foundation booth and present products and solutions based on the OPC technology, especially focusing on the new emerging Unified Architecture standard. Of course, you will find also the CommServer products. On the occasion of SPS/IPC/DRIVES, a communication server providing multi-protocol, multi-medium and multi-channel redundant access to real-time process data operating in OPC UA environment will be presented for the first time.

CAS at the 4th International Manufacturing Trade Fairs - PROTECH`08

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

November 19 – 20, 2008, Wroclaw

PROTECH is Poland’s premier manufacturing event. PROTECH is a unique combination of two days of over 60 manufacturing engineering seminars, presentations of new products and meetings with manufacturing experts and professionals.

During the presentation we will show new features and opportunities in process control and IT systems integration using the CommServer products. The presentation will be focused on the integration of the diversed automation islands in order to present current process data as a uniform “big picture” of the manufacturing process to the other IT systems in the enterprise. As a case study, we will show application of telemetry systems integration to present real production in GIS and ERP systems.

Another example of CommServer application is the integration of the process control systems in order to make additional profits from the manufacturing process due to the synergy effect. This difficult challenge has been accomplished in the power industry, where synchronised heat distribution gives additional profits to the thermal-power plants group during electric energy productiuon.

Because of limited presentation time, please visit our websites for more details.

Meet us 11:00 November 20, 2008, Wroclaw

New Technology Workshops – OPC in wireless communication

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

We wish to inform that free cyclic New Technology Workshops will be held at our office. By definition, the workshops subject will be connected with OPC technology, communication with technological processes and practical application of CommServer family products. We have the pleasure of inviting you to:

The workshops are a good opportunity to learn more about the issues and requirements of wireless communication (radio, GPRS, satellite transmission) in the process control industry and solutions using CommServer products to solve communication problems and publish process data in the OPC address space. Additionally, during the workshops you will have an opportunity to practice installation and configuration of the communication server and OPC client software at individual laboratory stands to access a PLC controller using radio and GPRS modems.

The workshops are FREE OF CHARGE!!!

Enrollment until Oct.16, 2008. - FILLED TO CAPACITY!!!

Considering your huge interest in the “OPC in wireless communication” subject, we wish to invite you to the next workshop on December 03, 2008.

Limited number of participants. The workshops will be filled on a first come first served basis. Register today.

New pages at the CommServer website

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Thanks for OEM program we developed a new group of products from CommServer software family - dedicated OPC servers (Data Access 2.00, 2.05a, 3.0) - available from EUR 250. Each of the offered OPC servers is combined of two components: OPC communication engine and dedicated DataProvider. The offer includes, among others:

14TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CYBERNETICS AND SYSTEMS OF WOSC

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

During the MANUFACTURING AND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS panel, in his presentation titled Large Scale Distributed Process and Business Management Integration, Mariusz Postół will propose an approach to systems design using a novel systematic design methodology and architecture using the Process Observer concept.

Process and business layer integration is recognized as one of major importance to further improvements in the manufacturing process. To succeed, it has to be governed by well-defined information architecture and appropriate communication infrastructure. Mutual influence of the architecture and underlying communication with the physical plant floor process is discussed in the paper and a novel systematic design methodology and architecture is proposed to greatly reduce the complexity. The presented case study proves that the solution not only allows the real-time process requirements to be met, but also is a platform for multi-enterprise collaboration.

To make the automation process more and more beneficial, the systems have to be integrated. From integration, we should expect additional effectiveness as a result of synergy and real-time macro optimization effects.

System integration means the necessity of establishing an association between components and actually building an information architecture, which has a great, direct impact on the final robustness, maintainability, expandability, dependability, functionality and costs.

The defining characteristic of a networked control system (NCS) is having one or more control loops closed via a serial communication channel. A distributed control system means that the feedback is provided from a supervisory control system to isolated islands of automation and all of them deal with the same real-time process. Large scale emphasizes three main features of the discussed type of systems. The first two are of especially big responsibility and intrinsic complexity. The third one is a large geographical area the system is spread over.

A novel systematic design methodology and architecture is discussed in the article to greatly reduce the complexity. The architecture uses the Process Observer concept as an intermediate component to provide a consistent sole representation of a distributed real-time process at the upper layer boundary. It provides communication, simulation and infrastructure monitoring functionality. To meet scalability and open connectivity requirements, in the proposed approach an OPC interface is used to be consumed by upper layer applications.

Using the middleware archetype with only one common component creates a single point of failure. The proposed solution offers tree levels of redundancy to eliminate the risk: hardware, communication paths and signals.

Because of its role, there could be implemented the following unique features: optimizing utilization of the underlying communication infrastructure, multi-protocol capability, multi-medium capability, multi-channel connectivity, adaptive retry algorithm, adaptive sampling algorithm, and optimal transfer algorithm.

The case study proves a competitive advantage of using this approach as the collaboration platform of three power plants for synergy effect.

OPC Viewer is a full featured OPC client designed to help during installation, testing, and configuration of OPC Data Access 2.xx and 3.0 compliant servers. This tool is available as a standalone application or as a component of other software packages free of charge. Now it is also used as configuration software for the DataPorter.

Exported on-site - where direct connection to an OPC Server is possible - dictionary XML files can be sent and used anywhere to prepare a client configuration and build databases containing a process dictionary – address space metadata.

Process and Business Layers Robust Integration

Friday, March 07, 2008

Introduction

To encourage you to read the white paper published recently, below please find it’s abstract. It is worth reading all the more because, according to available survey results, the topic is recognized as one of major importance to further improvements in the manufacturing process by people responsible for implementation and maintenance of management systems.

Integration

Nowadays, to have the edge over competitors, modern manufacturing automation systems have to be employed. They consist of IT and control systems at business and process levels. To make the automation process more and more beneficial, the systems have to be integrated. From integration, we should expect additional effectiveness as a result of synergy and real-time macro optimization effects.

System integration means the necessity of establishing an association between components and actually building an information architecture, which has a great, direct impact on the final robustness, maintainability, expandability, dependability, functionality and costs.

Generally, one of the following methodology can be applied:

Peer to peer model: A common practice is to achieve short-term ad-hoc objectives by creating dedicated point-to-point connectors wherever it is useful. In this approach, the number of logical links rapidly grows with the number of components and, finally, we have to deal with communication chaos.

Totalitarian model: The next option is to use an “all in one” product that is dedicated to all functions and usually provided as one complex total system – a super-system. If strictly observed it could be a blind path, because the result is vendor-related forever.

Process Observer model: It is a kind of a virtual layer, which is a “big picture” of the underlying process layer composed of unit data randomly accessible to the process and business management systems by means of a unified and standardized interface. It is like a bridge connection between the plant-floor, process and business management levels.

Process Observer implementation

The Process Observer concept has been implemented in the CommServer software. Engaging of an intermediate component as a driver for plant-floor devices is a middleware archetype used worldwide in thousands of applications. To provide a consistent sole representation of a distributed real-time process at the upper layer boundary, it must offer unique features.

Functionality

Communication: To meet scalability and open connectivity requirements, it exposes an OPC interface to be consumed by upper layer applications. Because not all applications support the OPC standard, an additional software package, DataPorter, offers SQL and XML connectivity.

Simulation provision: CommServer offers the possibility of creating simulators and publishing simulation data as OPC tags. Using simulators instead of communication drivers, it is possible to switch between production and test environments.

3 levels of redundancy

Using the middleware archetype with only one common component creates a single point of failure. The proposed solution offers tree levels of redundancy to eliminate the risk:

Hardware: We have two options: boxes and components redundancy.

Communication paths: CommServer is designed to recover from the failure of a device communication path by switching to another available one. The crucial feature of paths redundancy is the provision of the routs multiplication without the necessity of transferring the same data over the network many times and controlling the availability of all the paths.

Signals: CommServer allows to define replicated signals. Thus, if one signal fails, the other one is available as a single OPC tag.

Optimal communication

Because of its role, the CommServer has to implement the following unique features optimizing utilization of the underlying communication infrastructure:

Multi-protocol capability

Multi-medium capability

Multi-channel connectivity

Adaptive Retry Algorithm

Adaptive Sampling Algorithm

Optimal Transfer Algorithm

A case study proves a competitive advantage of using CommServer as the collaboration platform of three power plants for synergy effect giving $5M per year.

Mariusz Postół, Ph.D., Eng. attended the IMCSIT.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Large Scale Distributed Control Systems (LSDCS) are usually created in a multistep integration process. To succeed, the process has to be governed by a well-defined information and communication architecture. Interrelationship between the information architecture and the underlying communication infrastructure is discussed in the paper and a novel systematic design methodology is proposed to greatly reduce the whole complexity and decrease dependence by decoupling application associations and underlying communication paths. The base of the proposed approach is Process Observer – an intermediate component used as a consistent sole representation of a distributed real-time process at the business and management layer boundary. In the proposed architecture, the Process Observer is like a bridge connection between the plant-floor control and the business/management sites. That concept has been implemented in the CommServer software package. That communication server is optimized for distributed control system applications. To meet scalability and open connectivity requirements, it exposes an OPC interface to be consumed by upper layer applications. Engaging of an intermediate component as a driver for plant-floor devices is a middleware archetype used worldwide in thousands of applications. But to provide a consistent sole representation of a distributed real-time process at the upper layer boundary - according to the model - the CommServer has to implement unique features including but not limited to:

Multi-protocol capability: many protocols can be implemented as DataProvider component and plugged-in and utilized simultaneously;

Multi-medium capability: any physical layer technology can be used to start building a communication stack;

Paths redundancy: to improve robustness, the same remote unit can be reached using different physical layers to eliminate single point failure dependency - after detecting failure of one path, another one is activated immediately;

Adaptive Retry Algorithm: each protocol retries to acquire data after an error, but adapting the number of retries to current conditions allows to increase greatly the whole bandwidth;

Adaptive Sampling Algorithm (ASA): is responsible for adjusting the plant floor devices sampling rate according to the current process state;

Optimal Transfer Algorithm (OTA): is responsible for minimizing the difference between the individual process data update rate as required by clients and the current sampling rate of process control units;

Simulation provision: using the DataProvider concept, it is possible to publish simulation data in the same way as the process data;

Resource monitoring: in a production environment, monitoring and management of the recourses that make up the information processing and communication infrastructure is often of the same importance as access to the real time process data.

CAS at OPC Interoperability Workshop in Nurnberg, Germany.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Interoperability Testing is a process where OPC vendors test their products with each other and attend an event hosted by the OPC Foundation. That process requires that OPC vendors run a series of standard tests for each combination of an OPC Client and an OPC Server products.
OPC Server products are obligated to pass a test with Compliance Test Tool in advance. In addition, OPC Client products have to be tested against the OPC Analyzer Tool in a test supervised by the OPC Foundation.
Clients and servers that have successfully passed the tests will be listed as “Self - Tested” OPC products.
Our main target was to certificate OPC compatibility for the following products:

Honorable mention for CAS for CommServer software package.

Friday, September 21, 2007

The 9th Scientific-Technical Symposium ENERGETYKA 2007 was a good opportunity to exchange views and share experience with enterprises from the whole sector, as well as companies that render services for the power industry.

During the evening celebration “SUCCESS KEY” prizes were awarded. The competition committee appreciated also our CommServer™ software package and awarded it the 2nd honorable mention in the “New Technologies” category.

CommServer rel. 3 is modern software, which offers the possibility of data transmission management in any technological process. It is a fully configurable OPC server that provides a multi-protocol, multi-medium and multi-channel redundant access to physical process control device data. To ensure short response time and effective utilization of the physical device communication channels throughput, a unique scan on demand algorithm was implemented.

At present, after a positive recommendation of commercialization our software has many different uses in industrial communication systems, e.g. steering and monitoring of pumping stations, monitoring of key network parameters, waste gas emission accounting system etc. Basing on the talks held, it is found that industrial automation experts are positively disposed towards the possibility of introducing the innovative information transfer management technology to an enterprise without the need for interfering in the existing systems to a great extent. On the other hand, experts in science and technology commercialization confirm that there is a great potential for development of that type communication software.

Friday, August 24, 2007

During the symposium ENERGETYKA 2007, CAS will present industrial software development trends and information technologies supporting optimization and integration processes of the business systems (ERM, GIS, CRM) and production.

This will be another meeting attended by us this year to exchange views and share our experience gained during 15 years on the wide market of industrial information systems, including the power engineering sector. During the Symposium, within the information systems panel, Mr. Przemysław Małek, M.Sc. will review the benefits and trends of the integration of the business systems (ERM, GIS, CRM) and production.Moreover, basing on an example of a heat and power station, we will present the key problems of information and automation systems integration and the methods of their solution. We also will show you innovative technologies of information flow management implemented and used in the CommServer software package, developed on the basis of practical experience gained during implementation of projects for heat and power engineering.